U.S. President Donald Trump criticized Pope Leo XIV in remarks to reporters and on social media on Sunday, calling the first American leader of the Catholic Church “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy.”

Axar.az reports, citing NBC News, that Trump made the comments at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland after being asked about a lengthy Truth Social post in which he criticized the pope.

“I don’t think he’s doing a very good job. He likes crime, I guess,” Trump told reporters.

“We don’t like a pope that’s going to say it’s OK to have a nuclear weapon. We don’t want a pope that says crime is OK in our cities. I don’t like it. I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo,” he added.

The White House leader also stressed that he was particularly unhappy with the pope’s lack of support for certain U.S. actions.

It should be noted that Pope Leo XIV had previously criticized U.S. policy toward Iran and described Donald Trump’s threats about destroying Iranian civilization as unacceptable.